Mainstream press fails to follow up on sensationalistic story; film at 11
You may have seen (could hardly have missed) all the press coverage some weeks ago about plants exhaling methane, and how that was a big contributor to global warming. It was a preliminary result, subject to review and analysis, but the mainstream press (not to say conservative pundits) ran with it as if it were the final nail in the coffin of anthropogenic global warming. Not humans burning gigatonnes of fossil fuel, no-sir! Plants were responsible!
Well, exactly. I mean, seeing as how plants are such a new invention and all, only dating back to the beginning of the industrial revolution. How could we have missed it?
Scientists at the Max Planck institute were horrified. Their paper was quite technical, and that wasn’t what they were saying at all, so they issued a clarification. Nature issued a clarification, and other responsible publications as well.
The mainstream press? Not so much. And conservative pundits? Well, not at all. What a surprise.
I take consolation in knowing the press will be eaten first when the aliens land.
Did you see Moyer’s “Buying the War” on Wednesday? It’s getting to be less and less unusual for the mainstream press to betray it’s audience.
Hell, even the Gipper knew that: ““Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.”- Ronald Reagan, 1981
Reminds me of when the press was blaming it on the cows when that study came out about a year or two ago.
Cow farts are certainly responsible for part of global warming. The question is, how much? Estimates vary widely. In any case, we’d do well to raise less cattle and more crops.